𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Tory grandee Norman Tebbit will be remembered as an “inspiring leader”, mourners at his funeral were told. The nation said farewell to one of the giants of British politics as Lord Tebbit was laid to rest following his death three weeks ago.

The service, at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds, was attended by a cast of politicians including former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, ex-MP and novelist Jeffrey Archer and Sir Jacob Rees Mogg. Tory peer and novelist Lord Michael Dobbs, author of House of Cards, gave the eulogy and described Lord Tebbit as “a giant, an inspiring leader” while Sir Iain gave a reading from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Lord Tebbit was one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest politician allies and played a key role in the Tory government that reshaped the United Kingdom in the 1980s. He died peacefully at home on July 7 aged 94.

His coffin arrived at the cathedral in a black hearse, with family members following behind on foot.

Church bells rang as air cadets formed a guard of honour at the cathedral door and the coffin, covered with flowers, was carried inside.

Children William, Alison and John took turns to share reflections of their father, who Alison described as “uncompromising” and “loyal”.

The service ended with the RAF March as recessional music as people filed out.

Sir Iain said afterwards “It was a glorious service and rather befitting for Norman, Norman Tebbit, who quite often was understated but never missed an argument.

“He was a tough competitor but the beauty of it that came out was he had a real soft heart and was kind and had many friends on all sides of the house.

“He was my mentor throughout the early part of my political career.”

Lord Tebbit served as employment secretary, taking on the trade unions, and as chairman of the Conservative Party from 1985 to 1987, when he helped Mrs Thatcher secure her third general election victory.

He was injured in an IRA bombing during the Conservative Party conference in Brighton in 1984, which left his wife, Margaret, paralysed from the neck down.

After the 1987 election victory he left full-time politics and focused on caring for his wife, who died in 2020.

Lord Tebbit famously recalled in 1981 that his unemployed father in the 1930s “got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it.” It meant he was popularly known as the politician who told the unemployed to get “on your bike!”, although those were not his words.

He left the Commons in 1992 and became a member of the House of Lords.

Lord Archer, who attended with his wife Mary, said the service was “beautiful” and that Lord Tebbit “was above all loyal, loyalty was his passion”.